


Clad in Skeletal Leaves and the Vines of Guilt

by Shadow_Chaser



Series: In Blinded Skies [8]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: During Episode: A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen right before the last scene with Karen Page, Follows "The Boy (The Girl) Who Wouldn't Grow Up", Gen, He probably needs a lot of hugs, Matt is a prickly hedgehog when it comes to certain emotions, Of all of the crap Matt's gone through in Season 2, Post-Episode: s02e13 A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen, Post-Episode: s03e10 Maveth, Post-Season 2 of Daredevil, Season 2 spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-27 23:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6304513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/pseuds/Shadow_Chaser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Season 2 of "Daredevil" reaction piece.  Matt pretty much needs a lot of hugs by the end of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

Coulson had ordered a majority of the SHIELD command staff to take some leave after what had happened at the castle. It was not exactly an order, phrased more like a 'Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus and whatever else you celebrate' type of request. That said, Daisy knew that May at least stayed to make sure that any crisis that arose in the next two days while everyone was taking their leave-of-absence would be handled. Of course, being an underground organization, they would be on-call for the most part, but Daisy understood the gist of it. It had been harrowing, fighting through HYDRA, almost dying until they were rescued. She understood that Coulson wanted them to decompress a bit before they resumed their mission to root out the rest of HYDRA's flailing leadership and hunt down the ones that escaped. There was also Daisy's own growing mission to recruit as many newly awakened Inhumans as possible to add to her team and also to keep them off of HYDRA's radar.

Still, she did appreciate the fact that Coulson wanted them all to take a quick break before diving back into their respective missions. Her appreciation was a little apprehensive though, when she received a text from Katie. She had thought her friend was halfway across the world or doing something outside of her usual haunt of New York City, but the text seemed to indicate that she was aware of something happening inside the city. All it had said was [Shit is going down in a big way in the Rotten Apple. Possible gifted activity. Warned mutual friend]. Their mutual friend was none other than Daredevil, the vigilante Devil of Hell's Kitchen, and for Daisy, her childhood best friend Matt Murdock.

She knew that Daredevil was fiercely protective of his city and knew that he disliked outside interference, preferring to work alone and – her opinion – carry the weight of the world while he was at it, on his shoulders. But she also knew that Matt was just as stubborn as herself when it came to dangerous situations. She had briefly scanned the most recent headlines of the [Trial of the Century] that had been happening regarding the criminal known as Punisher, the fact that Matt and Foggy were representing him, had their case fail when Punisher went off the rails, and his subsequent escape from lockup. Then there was the spate of headlines that indicated the Punisher was on a killing spree again, killing those that had wronged him when he was caught and seemingly killed in an explosion involving narcotics and a cartel dealing with heroin.

Though Daredevil had not been reported to be involved in the Punisher mess, Daisy knew better. Matt had been involved in some sort and she wondered why he would even consider representing a murderer and psychopath such as the Punisher. But at the same time, she also knew that Matt would have tried to appeal to Punisher's good side, as evident by his firm representing him. Losing the trial, Punisher's escape from prison, probably followed by what had to have been some serious grilling from the D.A. only to be caught up in the madman's revenge... Daisy sighed heavily and rubbed her eyes. She knew she should not get involved, having her own problems to deal with, but at the same time, she could not help but worry.

The gentle knock on the door frame startled her as she whirled around, looking up from her cellphone. She blinked owlishly at the sight of Lincoln standing by the door, a crooked smile on his face.

“You seemed pretty out if it,” he commented gently and she smiled and shook her head.

“Just got a text from Katie,” she said, holding up her phone and saw his smile disappear.

“Is she-”

“Fine,” she waved off his concern. The last time the two had met, it had not been under the best of circumstances and had involved Inhumans Lincoln had been trying to track down and save based on what he remembered from Jiaying's ledger. “I think she's still out of the country, area, or whatever. Just...found out a lot of shit is going down in New York though, while we've been, you know, doing this...”

Lincoln got a knowing look on his face as he nodded, “You want to visit.”

“No, no...” Daisy protested before she hesitated and saw him shake his head in amusing exasperation, “er...do you really mind?”

“Gives me an excuse to check up on Kamala and the family I placed her with,” Lincoln shrugged and she stared.

“Wait...I though you took her out of the country-”

He ducked his head and smiled shyly, “No, I found a family who were willing to adopt her as one of their own, though only the parents know about her abilities. Her adopted siblings though, I don't know. I can recognize when a person doesn't want to leave the city, so they're staying in one of the other boroughs.”

“Aww, that's so sweet of you,” she smiled as he moved closer and she obliged his unspoken request to slide her arm around his waist, pulling him closer to her.

“So, yes, Daisy, we can go to New York instead of ski country like we were talking about earlier. Go visit your friend, make sure he's keeping his pointy-horned head out of trouble. Text me if you end up running into trouble or when you're ready to go back, okay?”

“Get into trouble? Me?”

“Daisy...” Lincoln grinned down at her before kissing her hair affectionately, “you, have a tendency to drag trouble everywhere you go. And you also run head long into it too.”

“Comes with the job description,” she grinned back up at him and gave him a gentle peck on his chin, “thanks Lincoln.”

* * *

The two of them arrived in New York City in short order, taking one of the more nondescript cars that SHIELD had acquired for incognito purposes. Daisy had promised Lincoln to text if she was going to run into trouble while finding Daredevil. She had considered texting him as soon as she stepped into the grid that marked Hell's Kitchen, feeling an instant sense of unease and something not quite right in the area. But as she walked the blocks towards where she knew Nelson and Murdock was located, her initial sense of unease was replaced by a growing shock at how shell-shocked and frightened a lot of the populace looked. There was also the sheer amount of police presence all around the area, patrol cars and officers on foot, all looking surly and watching everything and everyone with eagle eyes.

She got to the building that housed Nelson and Murdock and climbed up the stairs, only to find a darkened hallway and a door that was locked. Blinking in puzzlement, Daisy wondered why on a weekday was the place shuttered and seemingly empty. Frowning, she pulled out her cellphone and dialed Matt's number.

It was about five rings and she was about to give up before he finally answered with a very rough, “What.”

“Matt, it's Daisy,” she said, wondering what was with his tone, “uh, are you injured? Do you need hel-”

“No, I'm fine,” he answered gruffly, almost angrily and she recoiled, staring at her phone and the name on it that read [Matt Murodock] for a second before putting her phone back to her ear.

“Matt, listen, the office is closed-”

“Nelson and Murdock is over. If you're calling about SHIELD, I'm in no mood to help, okay. Go find Katie or the Avengers to deal with. I don't care if its in my backyard. You can deal with whatever shit's happening now.”

Not even a second later, she heard the distinctive beep-beep of him disconnecting the line and she stared at her phone again, shock and surprise filling her. In all of the years that she had known him, he had almost never been rude to her. There was that one time, but it had been so long ago. She knew she had been a bossy pain in the ass to him from time to time, especially when Katie was involved with him back in their childhood, but he had _never_ been rude back. He had always been polite, nice, even kind when she had not been.

Something was definitely wrong and she could hear the _hurt_ in his voice. Whether it was physical hurt or otherwise, she knew that Matt was hurting in a big way. Her thumb hovered over the button that would call Foggy and ask him what the hell was wrong with Matt, but something about what he had said stopped her. She glanced up at the closed darkened doors. The way Matt had said that Nelson and Murdock was over sounded oddly familiar...almost like when she and Katie had fallen apart from each other after her friend had gotten involved with Matt.

She pursed her lips and instead, flipped her phone to her hacking modules and apps. She started to type in her codes and command lines to break into the local cell tower and pinpoint where Matt's cell call originated from. God forbid that he was actually injured, she would at least be able to find him and get him some help courtesy of Lincoln. It would be interrupting his own visit with Kamala, but she knew that he would help her, especially when it came to Daredevil.

She finished her hack and smiled to herself as she pinpointed the location of Matt's cell. It was not far from his office and she quickly headed back downstairs and out the door, pulling her jacket closer to her at the sudden gust of cold winter east wind. She made her way towards Matt's location and looked up as she saw that it was an apartment complex. She surmised that he lived here and opened the foyer door to see that his last name was listed on the complex's mailbox listings. There were buttons next to the listings to indicate that one could buzz in, but when Daisy tugged on the door, it easily opened and she shook her head. It would have worked long ago as a deterrent for unwanted visitors, but this was Hell's Kitchen. A lot of things were once pristine and now broken and in a perpetual state of not-quite-being-repaired.

She let the door close behind her and started her trek up the stairs. When she arrived at the floor the mailbox had him listed on, she saw that it was a pretty decrepit looking floor in dire need of a fresh coat of paint. Maybe it was a good thing that Matt was not able to really see the state of his apartment's hallway. She found his apartment at the end of the hallway and knocked.

There was no answer, but as Daisy placed her fingers gently on the wall next to his door, she could feel the pulsating vibrations of someone inside. She couldn't get other reading if said person was injured or in a state of unconsciousness, her powers still a little bit sensitive to recent HYDRA and castle related activities, but she knew that someone was in there.

“Matt,” she knocked again, “open up. I know you're in there. Don't make me break this door down unless you really want me to.” She glanced back to the other doors near Matt's and hoped that her vaguely worded threat was enough to make him answer the door. She really did not want his neighbors to know that he knew a person who was gifted. She did respect his privacy and plus she was not supposed to exist at all after SHIELD went down.

She felt the vibrations in the wall change and knew that Matt had responded to her request. Lifting her hand off of the wall just as he opened the door, she readied a smile on her face before it was frozen at the sight of how _bedraggled_ and _exhausted_ he looked.

“Stop changing the acoustics,” he all but demanded in a rough tone before leaving the door open and walking away.

She blinked at the abruptness of his request. Even if he asked her to do things, it was usually prefaced with a 'please' or something polite. This was...this was definitely different and coupled with his expression and overall state, she was shocked.

“Matt?” she questioned as she tentatively walked in and closed the door quietly behind her.

“What do you want, Skye, Daisy?” he asked as she watched him flop back onto his couch. He ran a hand up his face and pushed his ruby-red glasses up before they fell back down onto his nose, askew. An irritable expression passed through his face before he took his glasses off and tossed them onto the nearby coffee table with unerring accuracy. He was dressed in sweatpants and a loose tee-shirt. She could see the faint purple of recent bruises and his face had a few new cuts.

She opened her mouth to ask how he was doing, but closed it before she knew that he would probably say fine or just not answer her judging by how irritated he was at the moment. She briefly considered saying that she heard the news and wondered how he was doing, but pushed the thought away just as quickly. It wasn't the right approach. Daisy chewed her lower lip for a moment as she studied her friend. Something had happened, she was sure of it, otherwise the Matt Murdock she knew and cared about was acting contrary to what she remembered and knew. Something had happened and it had affected him deeply.

“You're gonna just stare?” he asked, his eyes not focused on her, but she knew that he could more than likely sense her staring at him or even how she was breathing. It was rare for her to see Matt without his glasses on, the only times she had seen him without them was during the times she had studied with him in the Orphanage; away from the others.

“I...hacked the local cell tower to find where you were...” she said quietly and saw him roll his eyes with a quiet snort.

“I'm fine,” he growled back before pushing himself up from the couch, “now's not a good time-”

“I was worried-”

“I _don't_ need your worry!” he suddenly shouted, taking a menacing step towards her, his face a mask of fury, but Daisy could clearly hear and feel the vibration of hurt in his tone. No...it wasn't the fact that he was physically hurt, but mentally. She realized that he was in grief. “I don't need your sympathy, I don't need your concern, I don't need any of it, Daisy! Just get the hell out and don't bother me! Just stay away from me! You only come because you need me to help. Well, I don't provide free help or get used by someone like you!”

Daisy stared, shock coursing through her as she saw a triumphant sneer flit across her friend's face. “I can hear the shock, even with your heartbeat. Don't be so naïve Skye, Daisy, whatever the hell you call yourself these days. Just get the hell out of my apartment and don't come looking for me again. I'm not getting involved with SHIELD or any of its missions-”

“Matt-”

He took another step towards her and Daisy could hear something distinctively raw and furious behind his tone, but realized that while his words were seemingly directed at her, something was affecting it. Something in her snapped as she realized that he was trying to intimidate her into leaving, to push her away in a similar manner that she had pushed him away so many years ago and stood her ground. She glared up at his sightless eyes as he stood mere inches away from her. This close, she could clearly feel the vibrations and tension of his muscles; could feel the exhaustion and pain contrary to what she had felt from his presence the last time they had met. It all but confirmed to her that he was hurting in a bad way and was lashing out at anyone and everyone. She wondered if that was why Nelson and Murdock had gone dark, why he was holed up in his apartment dressed in clothes she knew definitely did not feel comfortable on his heightened senses; like rough woolen spun fabric used by martyrs and saints in penance for the sins that they had committed.

“Get out,” he growled roughly.

She met his sightless gaze, knowing that he could see her with his own special ability, “No.”

She saw his expression twist into a grimace, but before he could open his mouth to say or even do anything, an idea occurred to her. She reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out the single object she had kept from her childhood. It was normally in the inner pocket of her combat armor, but it found various places for a home from time to time whenever she wore different pieces of clothing. Coulson had discovered it the first time when she had been recovering from being shot in the gut and had immediately understood it as a sentimental object. He had not even asked what it was or what it meant to her, only placing it next to her pillow so that she woke up next to it.

Grabbing his wrist, she was not surprised to see that his hands had balled into fists, and could feel the power behind the tightened muscles, but they instantly relaxed and opened and she dropped the object into his palm. She watched as his hand curled back up, but in a far more gentler manner than possible. She glanced up to see the grimace that had been forming on his face disappear into a myriad of expressions, as he opened his mouth slightly. No words came out, but Daisy smiled sadly at the one expression she could clearly see from the others – pure unadulterated grief.

“It's okay to cry, Matt,” she said quietly, “Blankie usually helps you not cry, but it's okay to cry.”

After Katie had ripped Blankie to shreds, she had thrown most of it away when she escaped St. Agnes. She only kept a piece, not even a proper square, because she wanted something to remember Matt by. She had shared Blankie with Matt the first time they had met, and even after their big fight, she was glad that she had kept it.

She watched as he closed his mouth, nodding mutely, tears form at the corner of his eyes before she impulsively closed the single-step gap between them and hugged him tightly. She could feel Matt respond by immediately burying his head against her shoulder, arms circling around her in return. A hitching shudder of a cry was muffled against the dense cloth of her jacket, but she ignored it as he started to sob. She smiled sadly and held him as he poured out all of his grief, knowing that there was no other words she could say.

Sometimes, a hug was all that was needed, and it seemed like Matt needed one after what he had gone through. She had no inclination of prying, but she was glad that she had come when she did. Matt was her dearest friend and he needed her at this very moment.

 


	2. Chapter 2

****Daisy awakened at the sound of her phone alerting her to a text message and the sudden feeling of her neck with a very bad crick in it. She winced, blearily opening her eyes to surroundings she did not recognize for a second before she remembered that she was still in Matt's apartment. Her wince turned into a slight grimace as she pushed herself up from the uncomfortable sleeping position she had settled herself in and reached into the inner pocket of her jacket. She pulled out her phone just as the sound of an incoming text rang again.

“All right, all right, geez,” she muttered quietly as she saw that it was two texts from Lincoln. She shook her head a little in exasperation at the sight of his text lines broken up. He had apparently either fat-fingered text or more than likely had accidentally fried the electronics a little during his fast texting to make him send his one message into two. At least that's what she had been teasing him about lately since he rarely had access to smart phones whenever he was shuttling back and forth to Jiaying's compound and even when he was on the run and hiding in plain sight.

[About done with visit, you all right?]

She quickly texted him back: [Fine. No trouble. Meet you at that fancy restaurant you like uptown for quick eats in about 3 hours?] She knew that it would take at least an hour for her to travel from Hell's Kitchen to one of Lincoln's favorite restaurants uptown. It was more a hole-in-the-wall rather than fancy, but they liked to pretend that it was ridiculously expensive restaurant. He had apparently taken a liking to it whenever he was outside of Jiaying's compound doing his medical studies at NYU.

She got her reply back quickly: [See you then]

She smiled mostly to herself, satisfied with his answer and glad that he did not pry anymore or even give a sign that he was worried she was running straight into trouble. He trusted her that much and she was glad. She knew that they were still pretty new into their relationship, but Lincoln at least knew her history with Daredevil, though did not know who he really was under the mask, and allowed her the privacy of settling her own matters instead of helping her with them without even asking her.

Pocketing her cell, she finally looked across to the couch to her charge and found Matt not-quite staring back at her, but a signal that he had been wide awake, and seemingly for a while now. The blanket and comforter that she had pulled from his bed to cover him was cocooned around him. She had gotten it after he had mostly cried his eyes out and had been starting to feel the effects of such an emotional swing, exhaustion hitting him like a ton of bricks. The corner of her lips twitched up in an effort to kill her own amusement as she thought he looked like a human burrito on the couch. She had watched him slowly fall asleep on the chair opposite of his couch and coffee table before she had nodded off herself.

“What's so funny?” Matt asked, his voice a little hoarse, but he made no other move to get the blankets off of himself.

“Human burrito,” she admitted and saw the corners of his lips twitch up, his expression still melancholic and sad, but nonetheless appreciated the brief moment of humor on his own behalf.

He had not said a single word about what was causing him so much grief when he was crying on her shoulder, and she didn't pry, but she could clearly feel that he needed it. Needed someone there to hold him and tell him that he was going to be all right, that he could cry and did not have to hold it in. That she would not judge him nor should he be ashamed. That she was just there as a fellow human being who understood that some forms of grief could not be contained.

“You've been awake for a while?” she asked, as he continue to not-quite stare at her. She had a feeling that he was actually watching her, but since his eyes could not pinpoint or focus, they just looked like he was staring at a point beyond her shoulder.

“...Yeah...” he replied before clearing his throat a little, “didn't want to move though... Thanks for the blankets.”

She wanted to make a quip about how it was a little creepy for him to be staring at her while she slept, but she allowed his answer to hang in the air and do nothing more. It was more than likely part of the grief process and she did not mind. She would have liked if he might have woken her up sooner so that she did not have a crick in her neck, but she supposed that she probably deserved it; trying to stay awake on a chair that was clearly not built for sitting straight and instead more like slumping down in it and using the coffee table as a leg prop.

“It's winter, gotta have blankets,” she said, picking at the woolen one she had found in his closet. “Though this...what do you use this for?”

“Guests,” he shrugged as much as his shoulders confined to the roll of blankets around him allowed him.

“Good thing your guests don't have your senses,” she replied and saw another small smile appear on the corner of his lips.

They fell into an amicable silence, and though she knew that he was still staring at her, his thoughts unvoiced, she let the silence fill the room. This was Matt's time, not her time to be saying nonsensical things or even filling the void of silence with mission briefs, things that happened to her, or anything frivolous. This was Matt's chance at a peace that she figured he rarely got and rarely knew. A chance for him to bathe in the presence of another who could not claim to understand what he did and why he did it, but at least accept him like he had accepted her so many years ago; and even accepted her when he had discovered she was not-quite-human anymore.

“Her name was Elektra Natchios,” he suddenly said, and she focused back on him to see him still looking at her.

She tilted her head a little and nodded, “You loved her.”

He nodded, closing his eyes briefly before opening them again, his voice small, “I love her...”

Daisy had to admit there was a part of her that always wondered what kind of girl would be able to capture the – pun utterly intended due to her childish whim – devilishly handsome Matt Murdock. She had been oblivious and even metaphorically blind to how good-looking Matt was until Katie had all but thrown it into her face all those years ago. It had been her reality check and her way of growing up fast until when she had ran into him all those months ago and realized that what Katie said had been true. So that had gotten her thinking at what kind of girl would Matt fall for and here was her answer.

Elektra Natchios.

It was only a name, but to Daisy, it was everything. This was a woman to whom Matt cared so deeply about, that she could feel the vibrations of grief, of anger, of fury, of sorrow and most of all, of love in it. This was a woman who must have been strong, in both physicality, and mentally. This was a woman to whom Matt had given everything to and had lost so much in the process. She could not claim to know anything about Elektra, but she knew that her dearest friend protected those he loved with a ferocity that rivaled the beatings he inflicted on his enemies.

On the flip side - and it was an ugly side that she knew was from the years growing up inside and outside of St. Agnes - she was glad that it was not Foggy or even Karen. She did not know if she could handle the fact that one of Matt's friends whom she had met and chatted with a couple of times, had died. It would have been a little too much for her to handle Matt's raw grief along with her own at the moment. It was how she compartmentalize, how she coped with betrayal, with death, with her own feelings from time to time. Sure she expressed them, sometimes vocally, but she knew that she had to be an efficient leader, especially for Coulson's sake and for what he did in the aftermath of Rosalind Price's death.

She wanted to say that she was sorry for her death, but she also knew that her words would ring hollow since she never knew her. And that was far crueler to Matt who could more than likely hear false platitudes better than lies. So she accepted it, that he was willing to tell her the name of the person he loved who had died.

“Do you need me to do anything?” she asked and he blinked, understanding her question. She had been asking if he needed her help in any way, revenge, information, hacking, scouting, anything she could provide to the best of her abilities and also asking if he needed her to stay, to hug him again, to even help him around the apartment or even get him medical help if he needed it. One could have easily read into the connotations to something far more intimate, but Daisy knew that both of them refused to cross that line – though she did not deny since meeting Matt again she had flitted with the thoughts of potentially of crossing it or not.

“Can...can you stay for a while...until you have to leave?” he asked and Daisy smiled at the sudden plaintive request. He sounded exactly like he had all those years ago when they were children. “I...I like hearing your new heartbeat. It's...it's calming...”

“Don't know how you were able to sort out the texting sounds, but yeah,” she rolled her neck a bit and settled back in the chair, dragging the rough woolen blanket around her again, “I can stay.”

“It was the furious typing,” he gave her a hesitant smile, “and it's just a guess...”

“Lincoln,” she said and he nodded before seemingly burrowing himself back into his blankets and letting his eyes fall close. She didn't know if he was going back to sleep or meditating but she heard him whisper his next words.

“If he hurts you, I'm gonna beat him up.”

Daisy could not hold back the laugh that erupted in her. Matt was still hurting, was still on the raw edge of grief, but with those words, she knew that he would eventually recover, eventually move on, and hold those who were close to him even tighter. They were words that only she knew he would say because of their years of friendship. She knew that in one life, they might have been more, but in this life, the one she would never trade for anything, Matt Murdock was her adopted brother, and Daisy Johnson was his adopted sister.

 

~END~

 


End file.
